Museum to show Gandhi role in SA freedom
Heritage centre result of years of negotiation between Indians, SA officials
Johannesburg, June 2: A new living museum was opened in Durban to showcase Mahatma Gandhi’s role in freedom struggle of South Africa and to reflect the heritage of the first Indian sugar plantation indentured labourers who arrived in the city in 1860.
The two-storey 1860 Heritage Centre is the culmination of many years of negotiation between the local Indian community and government authorities.
“We signed a MoU in 2014 with the provincial government’s Arts and Culture ministry to run the place as a museum and heritage centre to showcase Indian history, but not in isolation, but a history that shows our intermingling and intertwining with the rest of the country,” said Satish Dhupelia, spokesman for the centre, who is also a great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi.
“We did not live in isolation, but among other race groups and cultures. In terms of social cohesion, it is very important to showcase how Indians worked with other race groups to build South Africa,” Dhupelia said.
Dhupelia recalled how late veteran Indian freedom fighter Ahmed Kathrada went to a university to give a talk and found that senior Indian students did not know that Indians had been incarcerated on Robben island alongside Nelson Mandela as political prisoners for decades.
“So, we decided that when we started off the museum, we would pay respects to the indentured labourers who came here from 1860 and showcase their history, but will also have revolving exhibitions which would include the (Indian) people who worked alongside Mandela in the struggle, many of whom are not even known by South African Indian children today.”
Dhupelia said there would also be an exhibition on the close relationship that Manilal Gandhi — the son that Mahatma left behind in South Africa to look after the projects he started there.
A permanent exhibition titled Mandela-GandhiLuthuli highlights the work done by these three great leaders in fighting discrimination in South Africa. The centre will not only look at the political history of South African Indian community, but also display artefacts from a century ago, like the household implements and clothing used by the early settlers, donated by their descendants.
Projects for the immediate future include showcasing the role of the Indian community in nonracial sport in the white minority government era, when race groups were debarred from playing against each other under apartheid laws. — PTI
SATISH DHUPELIA, spokesman for the Heritage Centre, said there would also be an exhibition on the close relationship that Manilal Gandhi — the son that Mahatma left behind in South Africa to look after the projects he started there.